Gino Hannah
|
A multi-instrumentalist, educator, composer, world-traveling troubadour, and events curator, Gino Hannah serves as InDiGO's Conductor of Development. Since 2015 he has learned, played, explored, and grown alongside the youth of Baltimore. Gino is passionate about pioneering new paths in Education that are integrative, whole-child oriented, outdoors, and intrinsically motivating for youth and educators. He has traveled, performed, and worked with youth in The Gambia, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, and Italy.
Gino grew up in a musical family and was exposed to musical and cultural traditions from all over the world from a young age. Music, in combination with service to humanity, is Gino’s calling. In high school, he spent two summers traveling to the Gulf Coast to volunteer and provide aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina, and it was a formative experience that deeply inspired his life path. Upon graduating high school, Gino sought out an opportunity to study abroad in West Africa, because of the human and musical lineages that stem from the continent. Through St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Gino set up an independent study where he spent 6 months in The Gambia studying the Mande musical traditions and the Kora (a 21-string Harp) with the Jobarteh family in Brikama, Jali Kunda. While at St. Mary’s, Gino also performed at the International Classical Musical Festival in Alba, Italy. Gino received his Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance and Composition, with a minor in Educational Studies. He went on to receive his Master’s in Teaching from St. Mary’s College of MD with certifications in K-12 Music. |
Immediately following the Freddy Gray uprisings in Baltimore, and fresh out of receiving his M.A.T. in Music Education, Gino was inspired to run to the fire that was raging just a few miles from where he grew up. He wanted to intimately understand the struggles that face youth, families, teachers, and communities in Baltimore. He was hired immediately at Harlem Park Elementary Middle School in Sandtown-Winchester, where he worked from 2015-2021. He served as a Baltimore City Schools music teacher with no budget, in a neighborhood torn by violence, blight, decay, redlining, and over-policing.
Gino quickly learned how essential it is to form authentic connections, and hold space for reflection, expression, vulnerability, and play. Gino taught every student in the school, PreK-8th grade, and swiftly became a beloved school leader. His classroom became the go-to safe space for the entire student body. He helped to implement restorative, integrative, culturally responsive frameworks and leveraged his position in Baltimore’s vibrant cultural landscape to offer opportunities, curate events, and hold space for local artists and entrepreneurs to share skills, stories, and experiences with youth. Gino directly attributes his growth and success to the relationships he has nurtured and still maintains with his students in West Baltimore.
Gino quickly learned how essential it is to form authentic connections, and hold space for reflection, expression, vulnerability, and play. Gino taught every student in the school, PreK-8th grade, and swiftly became a beloved school leader. His classroom became the go-to safe space for the entire student body. He helped to implement restorative, integrative, culturally responsive frameworks and leveraged his position in Baltimore’s vibrant cultural landscape to offer opportunities, curate events, and hold space for local artists and entrepreneurs to share skills, stories, and experiences with youth. Gino directly attributes his growth and success to the relationships he has nurtured and still maintains with his students in West Baltimore.